Seven years is a long time – long enough to transform Clementine from a small-town teenager with a broken heart into a woman ready to take on the world, but not long enough to make her forget about the man she was never suppose to see again. A temporary return to Willow Heights thrusts her back into Donovan’s life and home, unearthing heartbreak and obsession that have stood the test of time.

He left seven years ago too, for war and other things Clementine can only imagine. Coming back to town where he grew up in the shadow of poverty and drug addiction makes no sense, and neither do Clementine’s feelings for him. He could never forgive her for leaving, could he? Even if she had no choice.

Now, she has the freedom to choose…and so does he. Every day in Willow Heights makes it clearer: all he ever really wanted was her, and nothing will change that. Not even a taste of hell that drove them apart in the first place.

My Thoughts

My what a short and sweet little romance this was. It really did have my heartstrings pulled from cover to cover. I never imagined that Trevor would meet his end, I mean I envisioned something happening involving Trevor, Clementine and Donovan but not his death. If anything I thought his demise would be at the hands of Donovan and not Donovan’s friend and co-worker/employee Mike.

I’m really glad and had a teary eyed moment in the end where she and her mother’s relationship finally started to mend together. It’s really an eye opener to how people react and how much it takes for a person to realize their wrong.

I feel Trevor fully deserved what he got, and that justice was fully served for Clementine and the others that weren’t as lucky as Clementine to get away.

This novel highlighted the fact that true love can and will withstand the tests of time and anything that life has to throw at it. Novels like this give my big romantic sappy heart that something like this will one day happen for all of us.

I wasn’t disappointed with this novel, it was a truly a feel-good romance and I look forward to reading more works from Ranae Rose.

I’ve got another review for you today, I know I haven’t been as active this month, but I hope to be with work finally settling back into an equal pace. This will be my first review for an Arc from NetGalley, so without further adieu…

Why wearing red shoes makes a girl a harlot
Why a shop would ever sell something called “buck urine”
Why everywhere she goes, she runs into sexy-and infuriating-Brendan King

After losing her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend, Paige has no choice but to leave Philadelphia and move in with her retired parents. For an artsy outsider like Paige, finding her place in a tightly knit town isn’t easy-until she meets Brendan, the hot mechanic who’s interested in much more than Paige’s car. In no time at all, Brendan helps Paige find a new job, new friends, and a happiness she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel again. With Brendan by her side, Paige finally feels like she can call Mirabelle home. But when a new bombshell drops, will the couple survive or will their love come undone?

My Thoughts

What a lovely feel-good novel this was. I don’t exactly know where to begin with my thoughts. The whole novel was like a movie playing in my head, for one because you can picture yourself in the setting of Mirabelle and place yourself in Paige’s shoes as being the outsider in a small town. The novel was humorous in most spots, so much so that I was told to stop “cackling” roughly around midnight. But it was also sad in others like with the death of her father. It was a tear jerker both happy tears and sad tears.

The main characters were your typical – girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back and they live happily ever after – couple. < This most of the time isn’t a bad thing and wasn’t in this case. Paige and Brendan had their share of flaws and skeletons in their closet, and were easily relatable as I mentioned above. I could place myself in Paige’s shoes.

In the beginning I never would have guessed that Brendan would get her a job working in a funeral home, that had been a twist I wasn’t expecting at all. It did end up working out for her in the end and she actually enjoyed working with what she did. I also didn’t expect her father to pass away with cancer. That plot twist was a blinding, mostly because how the author introduced it into the plot was subtle but out of the blue – like all of the sudden he wasn’t feeling well and had pain and the only one who noticed had been Brendan. I don’t know about Pancreatic cancer from personal experience and each instance could be different but when a family member of mine had cancer you could tell there was something wrong, it slowly got more noticeable. They should had been able to notice but in the defense of Paige and her mum, they probably didn’t know the signs that started to show that he had cancer.

All in all it was a very good read and I’m excited to read all about Jax and Grace’s relationship…hopefully in the second book.

I’m going to try to do a monthly wrap up of the novels I’ve read, link their reviews and mention what Reading Challenges I counted them towards, and since I don’t think I’ll get any more reading done for the month of January I’m just going to post it now. However if I do, then I’ll update this post accordingly.

Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey’s tattoo parlor. Becca Meritt is warm, sexy, wholesome – pure temptation to a very jaded Nick. He’s left his military life behind to become co-owner of Hard Ink Tattoo, but Becca is his ex-commander’s daughter. Loyalty won’t let him turn her away. Lust has plenty to do with it too.

With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs Nick. She just wasn’t expecting to want him so much. As their investigating turns into all-out war with an organized crime ring, only Nick can protect her. And only Becca can heal the scars no one else sees.

Desire is the easy part. Love is as hard as it gets. Good thing Nick is always up for a challenge…

My Thoughts

I don’t know exactly what I was expecting with this novel. It was most definitely a quick read and was quite gripping. It kept me on the edge of suspense and I often found myself wincing when it came time for the bad guys to jump into the scene and hurt poor Becca.

I was quite sad with the ending, I think I expected more, a little bit more of the adventure and thrill with the crime plot and more with Becca and Nick’s relationship. I quickly came to like Becca and Nick however there were times when I’d throw the book down whenever he decided to play the hardass card and became a complete prick.

I’m hoping there’s more of their story in the sequel but from reading the synopsis of the second book it doesn’t like there will be. I was quite interested in her tattoo even if it wasn’t a permanent one. I will read the second novel and probably the third just to see the story continue since I love the plot so far. As far as being a contemporary romance novel, it sucked on my romantic scale. Sure they had their moments but the novel was mostly tied up in kidnapping aspect and Nick dealing with his issues over Becca’s father and bringing in his team and dealing with their issues with Becca and her deceased father.

When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draw her into two reluctant relationships: one with her plainspoken neighbor, Jo; and another with Alex, a widowed store owner with two young children. Katie slowly begins to relax her guard, putting down roots in the community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.
But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts her. With Jo’s support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards…and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

My Review

First off I have to say that I did see the movie way before I got a chance to pick the book up and finally read it. With that being said like most instances books are way better than movies, well this novel was no exception. It was definitely way better than the movie and I only wish now that I had gotten a chance to read the novel before hand.

This book was hard to put down and even when I had to put it down it was never far from reach. I liked the characters from the beginning with the exception of Kevin; Katie’s husband. But who would like a man like that, character or not. The characters were relatively easy to relate to in their everyday lives. I could feel the fear that Katie felt with the way Spark’s put it all into words. Spark’s painted setting that I could easily see the characters in. It was like watching a movie, a fantastic movie. The plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat, and it was interesting to see how gradually mentally insane Kevin got as the story unfolded, while the opposite happened to Katie, it was like they switched roles.

I’d have to say out of the whole novel my favorite character was Jo, the spirit of Alex’s deceased wife. I loved her personality and the way she helped Katie realize that she doesn’t need to keep hiding in fear. It was very interesting in the end to know that she had all along just been a figment of Katie’s imagination and it wasn’t until the end that Katie put all the pieces together and realized it when she read the letter.

With the new year comes new reading challenges for me to try. I’m an avid reader and I like to try and challenge myself to read different books from different genres and try to read as many books as I can. Here is the master list to the many reading challenges I’m going to attempt in the new year. It will be updated as I continue to find others to join. Should you be interested in doing the same, follow the links posted and sign yourself up. Each link will take you to my page and there links will be posted to the official challenge page.